Crazy Treasure-Hunter Money: Expedition Claims To Have Found $10 Billion (With a B) In Long-Buried Loot

TREASURE hunters believe they have found a legendary trove of 18th century jewels and gold coins worth $US10 billion on Chile's Robinson Crusoe island, the company that bankrolled the expedition said.

Robinson Crusoe lies 700 kilometres west of Chile's central coast in the Pacific, and was a refuge for corsairs crossing the vast ocean.
Legend has it that Spanish navigator Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverria stashed a fortune on the island in 1715, which was found by a British sailor Cornelius Webb, and taken to another area of the island to be reburied.

Members of an expedition organised by Wagner salvage, using a metal-detecting robot that also can identify chemical compositions, believe they have pinpointed the site, according to attorney Fernando Uribe Echeverria, who is advising the team.

"It is the greatest treasure in history," Echeverria told reporters, adding that searchers would start digging in a matter of days once permits had been granted.